UT Students Place 2nd in International Business Simulation

Published: June 22, 2009

A team of recent UT graduates came in second in an international
competition where they participated in a business simulation game using
enterprise resource planning software.

In the annual ERPsim
competition, teams operate a virtual business over four simulated
quarters. They use SAP software to solve enterprise problems in a
manufacturing company, such as sending and receiving orders and
delivering products. A software program automates the sales process, so
every firm receives a large number of orders each quarter. The students
use SAP to analyze the transactions and make lucrative business
decisions. The team with the highest net income, or profit, wins.

A
team from the University of Oklahoma took the top prize this year, but
The University of Tampa beat out 39 other teams. Forty-one teams from 20
universities participated in the qualifying trials, and only eight
teams made it to the finals. The third annual ERPsim Competition was
held June 20, and the competition was broadcast live over the Internet.

Since
one of UT’s team members was located in Morocco, the team used several
information technologies, such as Skype and Twitter, in addition to SAP,
to communicate with one another and participate in the competition. The
team consisted of Gary Christensen MBA ’09, Aissam Talouni MBA ’09 and
Bill Webb ’09, who is now enrolled in a master’s of accounting program
at UT.

“UT was designated ‘Team G’ during the competition and
fought a tough competition with the lead switching several times between
them and the winning team,” said team coach Dr. Harold Webb, associate
professor of information and technology management.

UT joined the
SAP University Alliance in June 2008. Since then faculty from the John
H. Sykes College of Business have been involved in multiple training and
information sessions both on campus and at SAP hosted faculty
workshops. As a teaching tool, SAP, the leading enterprise resource
planning provider (ERP), has been integrated into selected courses by
the Department of Information and Technology Management at both the
graduate and undergraduate level.

For more information, contact Dr. Harold Webb at (813) 257-3967 or
hwebb@ut.edu
.